Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Parliament) passed a law about the reinstatement of certain clauses of the 2004 Constitution of Ukraine (registration number 4163), by a constitutional majority vote. According to the UNIAN reporter, 386 out of 397 MPs registered in the session chamber, have supported this law. One hundred and fourty MPs from the Party of Regions, 89 MPs from Fatherland (Bat’kivshchina), 40 — from UDAR, 35 — from Svoboda (Freedom), 32 — from CPU (Communist Party of Ukraine), and 50 out-of-factions MPs have supported this decision. This law was voted for without the committee’s decision and at once for the basis and in general.

Rada adopts draft law to release of Tymoshenko

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine had adopted the draft law № 2023 “On amendments to the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding the implementation to national law of the UN article №19 on corruption.”

This document provides for the decriminalization of the article under which Tymoshenko was convicted, reports Espreso TV. More than 310 MPs voted in favor, including 54 Party of Regions MPs, 87 MPs from Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), 40 from UDAR, 36 from Svoboda, 32 from the Communist Party and 61 unaffiliated. Today’s session of Parliament was then closed despite demands from MP Oleh Lyashko to vote on the release of Viktor Pshonka. The Parliament will continue to work tomorrow at 10:00. Source: espreso.tv

Rada dismissed Zakharchenko

Verkhovna Rada dismissed the Minister of the Interior Vitaly Zakharchenko. According to the UNIAN reporter, 332 out of 388 MPs registered in the session chamber, have supported this decision. In particular, 69 MPs from the Party of Regions, 88 — from Bat’kivshchina (Fatherland), 41 — from UDAR, 36 — from Svoboda (Freedom), 32 CPU MPs and 66 out-of-factions MPs. As Arseny Yatsenyuk, the leader of the Bat’kivshchina (Fatherland) faction, declared during the presentation of the project, this resolution will come into effect from the moment of its approval. Source: unian.ua

Article by: Mariana Budjeryn By now, it is a well-known story: in the early 1990s, Ukraine surrendered the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal inherited from the collapsed Soviet Union in exchange for security assurances from nuclear...